Gild the lily

Meaning

To apply unnecessary ornament - to over embellish.

Origin

Shakespeare didn't coin the term 'gild the lily', but he came as close to doing so in King John, 1595:

Definition:

To adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful. The expression is a condensation of Shakespeare's metaphor in King John: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily ... is wasteful and ridiculous excess." i.e., you wouldn't need to add gold to a beautiful lily.

Etymology:

Idiom: gild the lily1. To adorn unnecessarily something already beautiful.

2. To make superfluous additions to what is already complete.

[Middle English gilden, from Old English gyldan; see ghel-2 in Indo-European roots.]

gilder n.

Source:

thefreedictionary.com

urbandictionary.com

phrases.org.uk

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